The post operative orthopedic shoe of this invention is designed to allow the wearer to be as ambulatory as possible with or without the aide of crutches or the like. It has been discovered that a protective shoe for post operative patients must be both lightweight and rigid. Rigidity is customarily provided by a formed sole that is fabricated of wood. Wood is both lightweight, rigid and able to withstand substantial abuse. The contoured wooden sole is conventionally connected to the wearer's foot, which is often encased in bandages, by a fabric upper which has adjustable straps to wrap and secure the uppers around the wearer's foot.
In order to insure that the wearer does not slip using wooden sole shoes, the wooden sole often has a slip proof outer sole fabricated from an abrasive resistant rubber-like material. Further, in order to provide a minimal comfort to the wearer's foot or some minimal cushioning to the contact interface between the user's heel and the hard sole, a foam covering inner sole is usually provided on top of the wooden core. For most applications, this construction is effective and efficient.
However, as the patient becomes more ambulatory, it has been found that greater protections may be required for the user's comfort. For example, in the cast shoe of Beightol, U.S. Pat. No. 3,566,487, issued Mar. 2, 1971, the rigid sole or platform of the cast shoe is covered with a thick flexible resilient layer running the entire length of the shoe. While the resilient layer provides substantial cushioning, the relatively stable contact between the foot and the rigid sole is lost. Similarly, while the construction of the cast shoe of Debusk, U.S. Pat. No. 3,905,135, issued Sept. 16, 1975, provides a cushioning pad for the heel of the cast, the padding is incorporated at the back of the shoe in the cloth upper and does not noticeably cushion the underfoot of the wearer. In the shoe of Pols, U.S. Pat. No. 4,178,703, issued Dec. 18, 1979, the shoe includes both a flexible upper sole and flexible bottom sole without any rigid core. This construction adequately provides for cushioning in a foot encased in a cast but fails to provide the necessary rigid support for the foot of a patient who is not in a cast and is recovering from minor or major foot surgery.
The cushioned inset of the present invention is designed as a compromise between the desire for a rigid supporting sole and the wearer's comfort, particularly at the location of the heel which encounters the greatest shock during walking. Cast shoes, while similar in appearance and construction to postoperative shoes for foot surgery, can tolerate substantial flexibility in the shoe platform not desirable for postoperative shoes.